Everything we lost
by angel2203
Summary: It just felt like everyday. Matilda, her brother, Nick, his best friend and her uncle and mom would wake up and work on the farm, but disaster struck when the dead started roaming around and lusting after every breathing organisms in its path. Now the dysfunctional family must do their best to survive but also remembering to still live a little.
1. Chapter 1

The little girl stood at the top of the stairs looking at the two drunken men with tired eyes. It was quite a common occurrence for the young girl to stay up late while waiting for her brother and his best friend to return from their drunken outings, scared that something bad would happen to them.

"Tilly, what are you doing up so late? Shouldn't you be in bed its quarter past 2 in the morning." Nick asked her, slurring his words slightly while trying to not topple over while pulling his boots off.

"Uncle Pete and mama are going to be mad at you for staying out so late. You're up at 6 working on the fields," Matilda informed them, "Also you were being very loud. I could hear you singing all the way up to the house."

The girl looked quite annoyed over the two drunk men disturbing her. To be fair, them both singing 'Sweet Home Alabama' was quite loud and, quite frankly, very poorly sung with neither of them actually knowing all the words and yelling loudly at certain parts of the song.

"Well, we're sorry Tilly. Didn't mean to wake you up." Luke, the more drunken one of the two, apologised to her after he had removed his boots and slung them to the side forgetting that other members were asleep in the house.

"You need water, that'll help with the hangovers tomorrow and maybe you won't have as much of a headache, especially after Uncle Pete will be done lecturing you two." Matilda tiptoed down the stairs, careful not to make any noise but her small frame already prevented that.

It was obvious that the two boys had woken her up. Her hair was stuck to her cheek from where she had drooled and the too large shirt that once belonged to Nick was creased badly. She reached over the tap and filled two glasses of water and gave it to the two men.

"So how was the night out?" The girl asked curiously while pulling the hair stuck to her cheek off her face.

"It was fun I got a girls number and look here it is as proof!" Luke enthusiastically shoved his hand in the girls face and she giggled. It wasn't a girls phone number but instead just random letters. In his drunken state, he had mistaken it for a phone number and was overjoyed that he was actually successful in talking to a girl, however once again he had been rejected.

"Good job Luke! I hope I can meet this lucky lady soon." She teased, going along with what he was saying.

"She was pretty and oh my god so funny. Wait, did I mention she was pretty? I can't remember but she was very pretty." Luke told her. The discussion of their night was quite short as the men had both passed out on the couch quickly. Matilda grabbed a blanket and covered them both in it to make sure they would be warm and quietly made her way back to her own room and, fortunately, fell asleep quite quickly.

"For fuck's sake! I told you two not to stay out so late!" Pete's angry voice echoed through the house loudly as he had discovered the pair of men nursing strong hangovers. Matilda moaned and covered her head with her pillow, annoyed that sleep was something that she was unable to get as everyone in this house couldn't stay quiet for a few hours. She was up now so there was no point lying in bed longer and proceded out her room into the kitchen where the rest of the family was.

"Both of you are working on the fields and I can't trust you with the tractors in this state! I specifically told you not to stay out so late." Despite Nick and Luke being 24 years of age, lectures and telling offs were still common and they had definitely received more of them rather than the 10-year-old girl.

"Sorry, sir." Both of them replied looking sheepishly at the older man. He sighed and waved it off.

"I don't want this happening again." Although Pete could sometimes come off as quite cold and harsh, he did mean well. He had looked after Nick and Matilda as if they were his own children rather than being just their uncle. His sister was only young when she had Nick, and Pete wasn't fond of the man she had him with. Matilda's dad wasn't any better. He had run off as soon as he found out she was expecting. A couple months later he was arrested and sentenced to jail for a couple years for dealing drugs. Nick's dad was in an out of their lives, he was a violent man and hot-tempered was putting it nicely. The family had agreed to exclude him from their lives.

Nick and Matilda weren't much alike either, appearance wise extremely. Nick was very tall and lanky. He had light skin, bright but cold eyes and a cocky smirk that would often get him trouble. Matilda was very much the opposite. She was very small, arguably too small for her age as many would assume she was 7 or 8 rather than 10. She was a lot darker so people often guessed she was adopted which annoyed the family because obviously families couldn't be in an interracial relationship. Instead of a cocky smirk, she was adorned with a glowing smile that radiated happiness and everyone mentioned how she lifted the atmosphere of the room up with just a smile. However, they both had a temper but both prefered to express theirs differently with Nick being a lot more vocal and Matilda often bottling it up and worried about upsetting anyone.

"Lay off them Pete, they're young they were just having fun." Melissa, Nick and Matilda's mom, argued against her brother. Although she could be strict herself she was far more lenient with what her kids could get away with as she remembered what she was like as a teenager.

"Fine just get on with the work. Oh and Luke go tell your mother you're fine. She was worried when you hadn't come back to the house. "

"Will do," Luke replied and the two men exited the house.

"When will them boys learn?" The older man sighed to himself. Raising two kids that weren't his own was difficult enough but dealing with another couple's son was taking a toll on him.

"They're men now Pete, believe it or not but their not the teenage boys they once were." Melissa put her hand on the man's shoulder in comfort and smiled at him, "but Jesus they still act like teenagers now and again."

Matilda smiled to herself. She remembered when the two men were teenagers. They never once excluded her from hanging out with their friends and would always let her join them in jumping rooftops much to her mom's dismay.

Later on in the day once the sun had set, Nick and Luke sat in the living room watching some sitcom they'd randomly put on.

"So how do you think we could improve the business?" Luke asked.

"Shit, you really think we can get this going. I mean we're broke man, ain't no way we can salvage this mess." The other man responded. Their unsuccessful attempt at starting a business had put a wedge in their weekly income, taking a toll on the entire family.

"Well that ain't the attitude to keep us going now is it," Luke joked, "Look, I think we can do this we just haven't a good start thats all."

"Nick! Luke!" Matilda had rushed down the stairs and worried the men over her franticness.

"What's wrong?" Nick asked her, aware of her anxiousness.

"I saw something outside my window! Please look it's creeping me out."

They trailed her up the stairs and into her bedroom. Nick peered out the window and observed the view. All it was was a field and a couple of trees, nothing out of the ordinary.

"There's nothing there Tilly."

She rolled her eyes and pointed to a spot in the field. There was something there. It seemed to be someone scouring the fields, possibly drunk judging, by the way, they were limping around and how slow they walked. It was too dark for them to be able to see a face.

"It's some drunk. Don't worry we'll get rid of them." His plan had calmed the girl down and they all made their way outside. Matilda stayed at the door, too scared to go out any further while the other two had torches and were making their way to the person.

"Hey! This is our place get off it!" Luke yelled to the person. They didn't respond and just glanced in his direction. It started limping towards them, arms stretched out. Nick and Luke withdrew slightly just in case it got violent.

"I won't warm you again, get off our land!"

The person kept moving toward them. Making inaudible sounds that they were unable to make out. It didn't sound like talking, not even murmuring, but moaning instead. A deep grunting moan and snarls. They guided the torch in the persons face and it was indescribable. It wasn't even a person. Half of its face had been carved out and its eyes were white, emotionless and expressionless. It looked like it was dead.

"Shit what the fuck happened!" Luke yelled out retreating back even more.

"Tilly get into the house and get Uncle Pete now!" Nick ordered the girl.

"What's happening!"

"Get the fuck back!" Luke yelled at the thing. He dragged Nick's arm back and rushed back to the house.

"Call the police we've got some crazy fuck here!" It had caught up them. Snarling and grunting trying to reach them all.

"Get back or things will get violent!"

"Hit him, Luke, it's fucking crazy!" Nick yelled at him.

He hit it across the head with the torch. It spluttered out blood yet still kept on trying to reach them. He hit it again, repeatedly until it was unresponsive.

"What the fuck was that!" The younger girl stood trembling at the door. She had splatters of blood on her shirt but not as much as Luke who had it covering his face.

"Fuck! I murdered it. I'm a fucking murderer!" He tossed the bloody torch away from him and paced the porch.

"Shit what the fuck are we going to do?"

"Tilly get Pete and Mom now!"


	2. Chapter 2

**For those who are actually interested in reading this story I should be able to update once a week. However, at the moment I am preparing for my GCSE's (final exams in year 11 in the UK) and I need to revise for it as well as trying to complete all my art work for the final project I have to do. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

3 months later

"Would you rather eat shit or drink piss?"

"Jesus Nick, what kind of question is that?" Luke responded to the mans unusual but inventive question. "I'd drink piss. Apparently, if you boil it for a certain amount of time you can drink it."

"I'd do the same, hell if it comes to the point where we have to be drinking our own piss, put me out of my misery."

"Don't worry. This will be over in a matter of weeks." Well, that's what he hoped would happen, wouldn't it? Soon, the government would be driving through, eradicating all these ghouls roaming the streets. It wouldn't be long now. All they had to do was be careful and try not to get bitten by one of them, sounds easy enough.

Pretty early on they'd made the link between being bit and turning into one of those things. It came with a cost though. Carolyn, Luke's mother, was the first of many to turn. Only a few days after their first encounter with the dead was she bit by Joe Mclaggen. He was the owner of the diner Luke, Nick and Matilda would go to every Sunday at three in the afternoon to get ice cream sundaes with a plate of pancakes drizzled in syrup on the side. He was a beefy man and looked intimidating, but was a gentle giant. He took them by surprise when they were searching around in his much-loved diner. He reached over the counter and ripped out the side of her neck, it wasn't long before she turned as well.

Jesus. What the hell caused all this to happen; was it some chemical spill? Was this the government's way of decreasing the population? If it was the latter it was a shit way of doing it.

"I think we should head north," Luke suggested. Travelling North did seem to be a good idea; there wasn't much in the town they lived in so venturing out would make it easier to find supplies, just in case it would take a little while longer for it to end.

"That would be a good idea, think about it, more supplies and maybe we could find some more people. Doesn't some of your family live up there too? We could meet up with them." Nick's response to his suggestion was definitely supportive. "I have always wanted to visit New York."

"Well, we can make a detour so you can do some sightseeing." He replied jokingly. The humorous atmosphere soon dispersed. Rustling interrupted the two men from their conversation as they drew closer to a lurker stumbling into a bin tossed onto the road.

"Do you want it?" Luke asked the taller man. Nick smirked back at him and cocked his eyebrow.

"Too difficult for you to handle I presume?" He walked over to the lurker, knife readied in his hand. He gripped its shoulder and as it turned around to lunge at him, sunk the blade into its head. It hit the ground with a thud. Nick turned back to his friend, the cocky smirk adorning his face that blood had splattered onto. "Seriously Luke if it's too difficult for you I don't mind having to kill every one of these fucks if you're too incapable of doing it."

The pair often teased each other, even while surviving in the apocalypse.

"Shut up! I could have easily got it." The man sighed in annoyance, "you just didn't give me the chance to." He started back towards their residence in which the rest of their family was waiting for their return. "Come on, we're burning daylight."

Matilda was always denied the chance of being able to scavenge with the rest of her family, citing the reason that she was the youngest and was too small to fend off the lurkers. She often mentioned the fact that she was right next to Carolyn when she was bitten. Huh, bitten. More like devoured.

"Could you teach me to shoot a gun?" She inquired to her uncle. She had always had him wrapped around her finger so maybe he would give into her this time around.

"Well, why would you need to learn how to do that?" Pete responded to her. He had his rifle on the table and the younger girl couldn't deny that the idea of being able to shoot a gun wasn't appealing to her.

"What if I need to defend myself when you all go scavenging? The first lurker we saw was right near the house and what if they get in the house. How would I be able to defend myself then?"

She was right. Hell, she was always right. Matilda was always a smart girl and often displayed a maturity way beyond her age, more than Nick. Well, especially Nick.

"Fine, I'll teach you. But you must remember everything I teach you. I don't want anything bad happening if you get trigger happy."

He leads the girl out into the garden and lines up a row of cans they'd emptied a while ago. He pulls out a smaller gun, as the rifle would probably be too big for her, and shows her how to hold it. "Relax your shoulders; keep your finger off the trigger unless it's to defend yourself at that moment." She followed his orders and looked up at him for further instructions. "Now I want you to shoot them cans over there. Line the gun up with them and take a deep breath before you shoot." She inhales loudly.

"Not that big."

She exhales and lines the gun up with the cans. Finger ready on the trigger, she takes a small breathe and pulls it. The bullet zooms out and hits the cans, knocking them over.

"I did it! I hit them!" The girl turns to Pete with a grin on her face. He smiles back at her and pats her on the shoulder.

"Good job. With a bit more practice you'll be able to shoot lurkers from a mile off."

"What the fuck was that noise?" Melissa stormed out the house, a gun ready in her hand. Her eyes scanned the possible source of the racket and landed on the gun in Matilda's hand. "What the fuck do you think you're doing giving her that thing!"

"I was teaching her to shoot a gun. She needs to know how to defend himself."

"She's too young to be able to know how to shoot!" She shouted at him, creating more noise that would attract nearby lurkers. "She's a little girl!"

"Hell, Nick could shoot a gun at her age and that wasn't even to defend himself." He argued back. In truth, Nick had been able to shoot a gun at her age. Pete and his nephew would go out hunting deer when he was younger.

"Mom, I was just learning how to defend myself." The girl piped in.

"Matilda, go to your room now." Melissa told her daughter, "your uncle and I are talking at the moment."

 **I know that nothing much happened this chapter but in the next one there will be more action.**


End file.
